Flying to and from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport in New Delhi is going to be an altogether different experience. With the inauguration the third runway and the implementation of new performance-based navigation (PBN) system on Thursday, air traffic movement at the airport is likely to become much easier over the next one week
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel will inaugurate the new runway along with other senior political leaders and the top brass of the GMR-led consortium that is incharge of the modernisation of the IGI airport. The runway is expected to severely reduce congestion at IGI as it would allow simultaneous use of the two existing runways. As of now, since existing runways are converging and very close to each other, simultaneous use of both runways was not possible. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) stipulates that there has to be a distance of at least 1,035 metres between two runways for simultaneous landing or takeoff.
Shift to PBN from conventional navigation system leads to severe reduction in the distance between two aircraft waiting to land at an airport thereby allowing faster takeoffs and landings.
Last month, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued the civil aviation requirements for implementing PBN up on its website to allow interested people to air their views. This is one of the major steps before the policy initiative could be implemented in the country.
In April this year, FE reported that the ministry was looking at reducing the distance between aircraft waiting in queue to land at a busy airport from eight nautical miles to 3-5 nautical miles, depending on how busy the airport is at that time.
PBN allows aircraft to take advantage of installed on-board technology and break from the traditional, and somewhat rigid, ground-based navigation system. Upon transiting to performance-based navigation, aircraft will be able to fly flexible, point-to-point routes reliably and accurately.
Other by-products of the introduction of PBN include lesser fuel burned and higher levels of safety. According to sources, the ministry is also working on reducing the lateral displacement of aircraft, which would help in increasing air space capacity and ease traffic growth.
?We have already reduced the vertical separation to 1,000 ft at a flight level of 29,000 ft and above,? a civil aviation ministry source said. The implementation of PBN is being done with the cooperation of the Airports Authority of India, DGCA and the civil aviation ministry.
While the AAI has formulated procedures for RNAV arrival and departures for Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad airports, the DGCA has laid down the minimum requirements for the aircraft and its crew to partake in the PBN. The requirements are based on the PBN manual published by the ICAO.
The DGCA is also carrying out the requisite training for pilots and crew of the various airlines in order to certify them for the PBN system.
On their part, the airlines have to update their flight management systems (FMS) data and procedures apart from training of flight crew.
The DGCA has set August 13 as the last date to receive comments on the procedures and minimum requirements of equipment and airworthiness after which it should take another two months before the system is implemented.